One Year at Forge Fitness.

One Year at Forge Fitness.

Many of our members come to us as a blank slate; from a fitness point of view. Even if people have done a boot-camp here or there or say “…it’s been a little while.” when we ask them about their fitness background; it’s all a pretty blank slate from our side of the barbell.

Which is a great place to start.

As a handful of our members; whom have been through a lot with us know, there are a few phases or steps that lots of our people go through. In effort to provide a ‘timeline’ of sorts, here is the most typical life cycle of a member at Forge Fitness who enters our CrossFit programming.

Month1: You enroll in Forged Foundations. This beginner fitness program shows you how to first move your body by reviewing all the key points of performance for body-weight movements. Think of things like the push up & air squat, this is where we start you off. Why do we start with such simple movements that don’t even include weights?! (some may ask) Well, the way we see it is that you need to earn those things by showing us that you’ll be able to control the body underneath those weights.

Months 2 & 3: You’ve graduated our Foundations course and have jumped head-first into our CrossFit classes. The movements in CF class are all ones that you’ve been taught in your first month; but there is still some difficulty remembering the difference between a Clean, a Snatch and what the heck a “Push Jerk” is. These first few weeks in CF class are when you can really see where your fitness stands within the gym. At times, this can be a big kick in the pants. Don’t worry though; we have all been there. If it’s your first CF class; you can bet with 100% certainty that the rest of the class has been just as confused, sore and tired as you at one point or another. The quicker you learn this; the better you’ll feel each day. It’s at this point where you will sit back down with a coach and get a free goal setting session to keep you focused and on track.

Months 4 thru 6: You walk into the gym a bit taller, because you read the WOD online the night before and actually know what it means! You’ve also started seeing some changes. These changes could be in how your clothes hang on your body but they sure as heck will be how much weight is on the bar when strength workouts pop up. These are some sweet times for sure when you get; what we call, “Newbie Gains”. Each day, you’re walking out the gym after ringing that PR Bell and writing a personal record up on the board. It’s within this time frame when some of those goals from above are achieved. Your strength is increasing, and with that comes some advances in movements like push ups, pull ups and maybe even some Double Unders.

Months 7-10: As the strength numbers keep rising, your progressions with some of the gymnastic movements move along nicely. You’re attempting some of the mid-range progressions of movements like Muscle Ups, Pistol Squats and Handstand work. While these are high level movements; we at Forge Fitness, have some great ways of getting folks along that process of doing them expertly. It’s at this time, that the year-long goal that was set a while back may even come into focus again.

Months 11 & 12: As your first year comes to a close, you start to realize what a profound effect this “fitness” thing has had on your life in a myriad of ways. Not only do you feel better from a physical standpoint but your mental state has altered in a way that you never thought. Your confidence is high, you smile more and those things have effected the world around you in a positive way. Whether you wanted to lose weight or get really fit; hitting the gym hard with great coaches in a caring community; you’ll achieve those goals and so much more.

I could go on and on thanks to the large group of members who have stuck with us for years and years. However, that first year is the critical one for us all. Walking into a place like Forge Fitness will allow you to start things off the right way.

You’ll meet with a coach 1 on 1 who will listen to what you want to accomplish